Thursday, March 22, 2012

Verdict: The Hunger Games

Another review!!! But before that, a brief run down on what happened today. Well, it was raining all day , I was actually worried that it would get worse and we wouldn't be able to go and watch the movie today. But thankfully, it was only drizzling by the time that we've left the house. The supppperrrr long line that I was expecting to see in the ticketing counters was none existent. But I am not really regretting the advance ticket purchase I've made. With a movie as big as this, you can never be too sure. We watched the first screening!!!

The schedule was moved half an hour early from what was written in our tickets so it's a good thing that we arrived early!

And another thing that I was anticipating is the lack of good seating due to the expected number of movie goers that would be watching the movie. But alas, the movie house wasn't even half filled by the time that the reel started rolling. The other half was almost bare except for at least two or three people who were sitting at the very back I think? Our section has more people seated in it considering that is nearer to the door.

The annoying happened again when a bunch of people, who chose to sit at the very back, they occupied two lines, who kept on talking LOUDLY! during the whole show. And when I say loud, I mean LOUD! The girls voices kept echoing inside the movie house and they won't shut up! The usherette reprimanded them quite a few times but they must've left their manners at home. Many people were obviously pissed off at them as well. I could tell that majority of us weren't able to concentrate that well with the movie because of the ruckus that they've been making throughout the movie. Gosh soooo annoying! They should've been kicked out!!

For
some unknown reason, this review isn't as satisfying as the others I
have made before? I was really having a hard time writing this review in
the first place. I just can't seem to piece together the words
properly. Argh! What is happening to me! And with this warning, I would
like to apologize on how crappy this review ended up. I think I am just
not in the best mindset right now. I'll try to mend this when I feel
like doing so.

I am glad that the movie stuck with the book as much as they possibly could. That was my biggest fear, and I think the same goes for all those who actually bothered to read the book in the first place. Film adaptations of books have this tendency of butchering good storylines. They deviate too much from the books. And for books that are quite lengthy, there's the problem with compressing the scenes, and they often leave out the important parts!

For this movie, the changes were actually minimal and I think the deviations actually helped in making the story much better.

First is the change in the structure of how the story is told, which in the book, is based on Katniss's own point of view. The shift enabled us to see beyond Katniss and provided us with a much bigger dimension. For instance, the exchanges between President Snow and Seneca Crane. And the stirring that has happened in District 11 which generally affected the possible start of an uprising which definitely put Katniss as one of President Snow's not so favorite person in his books.

Another glaringly obvious change was the MockingJay Pins origin, wherein in the book it was actually given to Katniss by Madge while in the movie, Katniss got it from the Hob and was given to Prim as a gift. I have to admit that this version was much better. This way the pin isn't just a simple token, but something that has a deeper emotional value and not a mere symbol.

The pacing was great! I love how they managed to mesh together all those parts smoothly, with the shifting done with fluidity. I think that picking out parts of the book that you want to appear in the movie and blending them together so it wouldn't appear too fragmented is a very difficult task.

Its great when you read the book but even better when you watch the movie because you have this visual motion standpoint where you could somewhat gain a greater vision of what you're imagining. For instance, my image of the Cornucopia. I have an idea but when I saw it in the movie, I was like "Oh so that's how its supposed to look like!." Are you getting what I'm trying to say?

The downside, possibly is how they downplayed the level of violence in order to keep it at a PG-13 level? The mish mash of shifty camera angles definitely wasn't the best of ideas to make it more audience friendly. It almost gave me a migraine.

Actors' and actress' wise, I think that every single one of them managed to give justice to the roles that they were portraying. The concern I had with Josh and Jennifer not having the 'CHEMISTRY' wasn't an issue at all. The pairing actually worked in my opinion. The height difference didn't even seem to exist anyway. Camera angles?

Surprisingly, after watching the movie I actually learned to like Haymitch and Effie.

My movie HIGHLIGHT:

Most definitely is the opening ceremonies! They look freakin awesome my gosh! A hundred times better than what I've imagined when I read the book. Cinna you're awesome!

Watching
the movie definitely is a great experience. It is like you are really
watching the words come out of the pages of the book.

With the movie hype still at its peak, and with many more movie goers who had been eagerly anticipating the movie since last year who have yet to see the movie themselves, I have a feeling that greater things are to be expected. Especially with two more movies that hopefully would be as strongly grounded as the first, if not, better.